In 2014, Sushmita Dev, the daughter of late Santosh Mohan Dev had won the seat defeating BJP’s Kabindra Purkayastha
Guwahati: Like Kaliabor, Assam’s Silchar Lok Sabha constituency is another Congress’s stronghold. Since Independence, the Silchar Parliamentary constituency has been considered a Congress bastion.
Former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev was elected from this seat five times (besides representing Tripura West twice). In 2014, Sushmita Dev, daughter of late Santosh Mohan Dev had won the seat defeating BJP’s Kabindra Purkayastha.
While Sushmita got 336,451 votes, Purkayastha tallied 301,210. Purkayastha had won the seat in 2009.
Sushmita was among the 44 odd Congress MPs, who was elected in 2014 when the Narendra Modi Tsunami hit the entire country.
In this election, sitting MP Sushmita has faced major challenge from the BJP after the saffron party made a strong bid to wrest the seat.
BJP has fielded Dr Rajdeep Roy as the party candidate against Sushmita.
Out of 11.91 lakh voters, 79.40% turnout was recorded in Silchar this time, dominated by Bengali Hindus.
The Congress is heavily banking on the support of the decisive 4.5 lakh Muslim voters in Silchar while BJP is making all out efforts to woo the Bengali Hindu voters.
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